The proposed invitational conference, "Health Economics and Outcomes Research: Making Statistics and Analysis More Relevant to Decision Makers", is a key component of an overall initiative The Bayesian Initiative in Health Economics and Outcomes Research which has an ambitious broad and long term aim: to explore the extent to which formal Bayesian statistical analysis can and should be incorporated into the field of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) for the purpose of assisting rational health care- decision making. The underlying rationale of the Bayesian Initiative is that many, if not most, HEOR applications are for decision problems rather than statistical problems, and thus Bayesian, rather than classical, statistics should be the method of choice. The conference itself will have a policy rather than analytical focus in that its purpose is to explore the usefullness of a Bayesian approach to analysis for decision making. Sessions include: (1) defining the decision problem; (2) presenting a Bayesian primer; (3) questioning why formal Bayesian analysis has not caught on in the past; (4) re-analyzing a problem using Bayesian techniques; (5) presenting the methods for the decision maker's loss function; (6) a round table discussion; (7) solving problems using a Bayesian approach (8) a kuncheon debate between a classicist and Bayesian; (9) reaction from decision makers; (10) a research agenda. Conference participants will consist of a mixture of policy analysts, health care decision makers, sponsors of HEOR, statisticians and economists. Papers presented at the conference will be published in a special issue of the Journal of the International Assessment in Health Care (JISTAHC).